The Independent High Electoral Committee has announced that the ballot percentage for the Kurdistan Parliamentary Elections for 2013 had reached 73.9%.

The final results of the elections are expected to be announced today, with 748,626 out of 1,878,286 votes having been released so far.

According to initial results released by the election commission, the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is leading by 52 percent in Saturday’s legislative elections in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, with the Change Movement (Gorran) trailing in second place, reported Rudaw news agency on Monday.

According to the early count the KDP won the majority of votes, 38.7 percent, in both Duhok and Erbil provinces, while Gorran was in second place in Erbil and Sulaimani, so far claiming 23.26 percent of the votes. Gorran is followed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) by 16.84 percent, the Islamist Yekgrtu party by 10.1 percent, Komall by 6.52 percent and others by 4.59 percent.

The elections were monitored and polls were followed by a total of 42,796 observers from the political circle, 5,867 observers from the civil society organizations in KRG, 394 observers from the international community, 114 members of foreign media and 452 members of local media.

2.8 million people cast their votes to elect the members of the parliament of Kurdistan Regional Government with 111 seats. Twenty seven parties and four independent candidates participated in the elections.

Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani, who is also the leader of the KDP, congratulated the people of Kurdistan on the successful elections and asked all political groups to honour the outcome of the polls.

The president called Saturday’s elections “a great achievement for our people,” and urged people to stop the celebratory fire that has been heard in Erbil and other cities for his party’s victory.

Meanwhile, Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa called on the people of Kurdistan to “preserve the peace and treat each other with a spirit of brotherhood.”“We are all winners and we should work together for a better and prosperous Kurdistan,” he told his party TV.

Aram Sheikh Muhammad, Gorran’s election commissioner, told Rudaw that his group has won the majority of votes in Sulaimani’s 501 polling stations.

Voter turnout -reported Rudaw- was recorded at 79 percent, which the Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said, “Reflects the people’s understanding of democracy.”

“The high turnout in itself encouraged the political groups to respect people’s will and act with civility,” said Barzani. “The uneventful elections displayed a good image of our democracy to the world,” he added.

Barzani urged all parties to “act upon the people’s goodwill with good politics.” He added that, “Soon after the final results have come out we should form a new government that the people of Kurdistan will deserve.”